Lot
185

A Group of Five Glass-Inlaid Gold and Bronze Fittings

SUI/EARLY TANG DYNASTY

A Group of Five Glass-Inlaid Gold and Bronze Fittings
Sui/Early Tang Dynasty
Including three of square form decorated with a large flowerhead enclosing a fleur-de-lys in each petal, the fleur-de-lys and heart-shaped petal motif repeated on the two small rectangular plaques, all to be filled in with bluish-turquoise glass and reserved on a finely granulated ground within braided and beaded borders, two still attached to their original bronze mounts which have multiple parallel channels on the back, some of the channels still retaining fibre remnants
One 1.13/16in. (4.6cm.), the others approx. 1½in. (3.8cm.) long (5)

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Lot Essay

A square plaque of similar type excavated from the Reshui tomb, Dulan county, dated 750-850, a period when the area was under the rule of Tibet, is illustrated by A. Heller, 'Some Preliminary Remarks on the Excavations at Dulan', Orientations, October 1998, p. 86, fig. 6. Another very similar plaque in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is illustrated by B. Gyllensvard, 'T'ang Gold and Silver', B.M.F.E.A., No. 29, Stockholm, 1957, pl. 1(d), where the authour suggests, pp. 50-51, an early dating of possibly Sui or early Tang.

Three plaques of this type, described as gold with glass paste decoration, now in the Hakutsuru Art Museum, are illustrated, along with a pen drawing of the largest plaque and a cross section of the side showing the channeled construction of the mount (similar to the present example) in Chinese Cloisonné: The Pierre Uldry Collection, New York, 1985, p. 39, fig. 18, where they are dated Six Dynasties, first half 6th century.